Haier's ultimately successful takeover bid for Fisher & Paykel Appliances became a contentious issue last year. When the Qingdao-based home goods giant launched its initial $1.20 a share buyout attempt in September, investors - at both retail and institutional levels - voiced concern that the East Tamaki-based manufacturer would be snapped up for too cheap a price.
At the same time, business commentators and the Labour Party speculated that F&P Appliances' local operations would be gutted should the firm fall into Chinese hands, despite Haier's promises to beef up its New Zealand-based R&D capabilities should the sale get the go-ahead.
When Haier sealed the deal in October after lifting its offer to $1.28 a share, valuing F&P Appliances at $927 million,since failures of residential wind turbines have hardly any effect on overall power, Sunday Star-Times business columnist Rod Oram said the acquisition was bad news.
"Potentially this could work in that Haier really could make Fisher & Paykel the centre, or a large part of, its technology development and design function - but it seems incredibly unlikely that a major multi-national would do that in New Zealand," Oram told RadioLive.
"While they will keep some jobs here for a while I can imagine that in a few years time all that will be here will be a sales and distribution function."
Labour's former economic development spokesman, David Cunliffe, voiced similar sentiment, saying the risk of skilled jobs being lost overseas was "worryingly high".
Though there is a lot of water yet to pass under the bridge, six months on from the acquisition Haier appears to be keeping some of its promises.
After paying a visit to his new masters at Haier's sprawling Chinese headquarters in February, F&P Appliances chief executive Stuart Broadhurst returned home and announced a plan to take on an additional 100 R&D staff across the firm's Auckland and Dunedin operations over the next two years. He wouldn't reveal the current headcount of the firm's product development team, saying that figure was commercially sensitive. But Broadhurst says F&P Appliances' product development talent is world class and Haier knows it.
"They [the R&D team] punch considerably above their weight when you compare them with other companies, and the culture in New Zealand is very unique," he says. "Our parent [Haier] recognises that, and they want to ensure the culture remains and we employ New Zealanders to do this work in an environment that's been honed over close to 80 years to produce very productive engineers."
Haier's main motivation for buying the New Zealand company was to secure that R&D expertise, as well as unique technology such as DishDrawer dishwashers and direct drive washing machine motors.
Broadhurst says the company will become a "design and innovation centre" for the wider Haier Group.
The plan is for F&P Appliances to become Haier's premium global brand, he says, at the same time providing technological assistance to its Chinese parent firm.
"We've looked at where the opportunities are for both Fisher & Paykel to get a significant advantage and for us to deliver technology solutions to the Haier Group to make sure they're more competitive," Broadhurst says.
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